The Ladies of the White House; Or, in the Home of the Presidents: Being a Complete History of the Social and Domestic Lives of the Presidents from Washington to the Present Time—1789–1881Holloway, Laura C. (Laura Carter)
History
The Ladies of the White House; Or, in the Home of the Presidents: Being a Complete History of the Social and Domestic Lives of the Presidents from Washington to the Present Time—1789–1881
Holloway, Laura C. (Laura Carter)
Presidents -- United States -- Biography; Presidents' spouses -- United States -- Biography
Elizabeth, third daughter of Mrs. Letitia Tyler, was married to Mr.
William Waller, of Williamsburg, Virginia, in the East Room of the
President’s Mansion, at Washington, on the thirty-first day of
January, 1842, in the nineteenth year of her age. In character she
greatly resembled her mother, and showed much of her early beauty and
grace. Her oldest son, named William, resigned from the West Point
military school and married during the recent war between the States
the youngest sister of the wife of President Davis, in the Executive
Mansion of the Confederate States, at Richmond. And her second son,
John, though a mere lad, was killed during the war, “fighting for his
mother’s grave,” to use his own words. Another son, Robert, and a
daughter, Mary, had been born to her before she died. Her children,
through their great-grandfather, the first Secretary of the American
Colonial Congress, and their great-grandmother, his wife, the sister
of the Earl of Traquaire, and whose grandson is the present titular
Earl, bear in their veins, probably, the nearest living blood to that
of Queen Mary Stuart, of Scotland, whose name her daughter bears.
“Lizzie looked surpassingly lovely in her wedding dress and long blonde
lace-veil; her face literally covered with blushes and dimples. She
behaved remarkably well, too; any quantity of compliments were paid to
her. I heard one of her bridesmaids express to Mr. Webster her surprise
at Lizzie consenting to give up her belle-ship, with all the delights of
Washington society, and the advantages of her position, and retire to a
quiet Virginia home. ‘Ah,’ said he,
‘Love rules the court, the camp, the grove,
And love is heaven, and heaven is love.’
* * * * *
“Our dear mother was down-stairs on this occasion for the first time, in
so large a circle, since she has been in Washington. She gained by
comparison with all the fine ladies around her. I felt proud of her, in
her perfectly faultless, yet unostentatious dress, her face shaded by
the soft fine lace of her cap, receiving in her sweet, gentle,
self-possessed manner, all the important people who were led up and
presented to her. She was far more attractive to me in her appearance
and bearing than any other lady in the room, and I believe such was the
general impression. Somebody says, ‘the highest order of manner is that
which combines dignity with simplicity;’ and this just describes
mother’s manner, the charm of which, after all, proceeds from her entire
forgetfulness of self, and the wish to make those around her happy.”
* * * * *
Major Tyler, who was for more than three years “Major Domo” of the
establishment, and to the last private secretary, says, regarding the
modes and inmates of the President’s house during this time:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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